


Also There Were Kittens

by YourFavoriteRobot



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: F/M, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-01
Updated: 2011-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-22 02:32:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/232756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YourFavoriteRobot/pseuds/YourFavoriteRobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tale of unwavering loyalty. Slotted somehow between 4.3 and 4.4.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Also There Were Kittens

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JaneTurenne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneTurenne/gifts).



> The lovely Ms. Jane and I decided that we would give each other prompts. Hers was, anything with Romana/Narvin. I explained to her that this was me and when you say 'anything' I take that as 'kittens.' So this happened.

Narvin was exhausted in a way that was almost enlightening, the strain that his body could take far surpassed anything that he might have guessed previously. Between burning raged breaths he almost felt smug about it. He had been running, running and fighting across the abomination that was this alternate Gallifrey, so hard and for so long now that he hardly had time to think.

Reaching the shelter where his president waited for him and the dipsionic wave oscillater he and Leela had managed to salvage from the wreckage of the capital, he finally let himself slow. He had it right there under his arm, the last part of the field disruptor that would allow them to escape this planet and monstrous beings that inhabited it.

Leela however, was not so close at hand. He could imagine the President’s inevitable rage over that little detail rather clearly. She was brave, the fool savage, and he could think of few other people who he would have preferred at his side in that moment. No one else would have charged head first and knife out into a throng of mad violent mutant creatures, allowing him to escape not only with his life but with the device. He had idea how she fared, unwilling to waste the time she bought him on looking back, he had simply run. He ran and he didn’t stop for anything until he reached his goal.

Romana would insist on a rescue attempt, she would do so knowing exactly how foolish it was as well, and their would be no dissuading her. He knew it all before he even pushed open the door, he knew it because it was his job to and he knew it because--

She was gone.

The shelter was tiny, a one room shack near to collapsing in on it’s self at any moment, there was nowhere for her to conceal herself. He spun around looking for signs of anything--enemies, traps, signs of a struggle-- any information to build a plan of action around so he could banish the horrible helpless felling digging at his insides.

There was nothing. He sat down on a log that served the rough function of a bench and thought. He was trapped here, without his president, without the savage, alone on a planet bathed in disease flowing forth from a crashed Viyran quarantine ship, surrounded by creatures mutating into other creatures, native animals and alien fauna he had never even seen in holoprojections. Terrifying predatory things with claws and teeth that promised rent flesh and the slightest provocation.

The few creatures that had lived long enough through the savage melee in which they were constantly engaged began to mutate further, becoming strange hybrids, their forms growing more grotesque and deadly the longer the survived.

And it was on this world that he had lost Romana, lost everything, that last shred of reality, normalcy, the only familiar thing that he had in a life that was once filled with structure and absolutes and a culture so permanent that it transcend the concept of decay.

He was in danger of sulking when a rustle under a blanket snapped up his attention. A pale yellow cat with sharp blue eyes worked it’s way out from under the dirty pile of cloth and began to pad around the room. Narvin watched it for a moment curiously, then the cat stopped, sat on the floor and locked eyes with him. For a moment it looked to be glaring at him disapprovingly. There was an chill moment of horror as the recognition dawned on him.

“Romana, no...” He gasped out as he got down on his knees to examine the creature. When he drew closer to her she hissed and then licked a small paw haughtily. “Oh, Rassilon help me, it is you isn’t it?” She was gone, as surely as if he had found a body.

All hope was dashed now, they had assumed that some how they had an immunity to the disease that these Gallifreyans didn’t posses and that was the key divergence in this universe but with evidence to the contrary pawing about on the floor stopping periodically to bat at a dust mote, he had to consent that was not the case. Certainly he could finish building the device to disrupt the decayed quarantine field that was preventing the portal from stabilising on his own but who knew if he would remain humanoid for long enough to do so. Further still, what could he do if he did escape, he had nothing left to fight for. There was only one place that he belonged and it was ever at his president's side. He extending his hand to Romana and she padded over and sniffed it tentatively.

“Madam president, I will still defend you to my last.” The Lady President purred and rubbed her head against his out stretched hand.

Behind him at the entrance of the shelter the actual non-feline and still perfectly Gallifreyan Lady President stood watching Narvin petting a feral cat while she dried her hair on a tattered piece of cloth.

“Thank you coordinator, I’m pleased to hear it,” she smirked. Narvin started, snapped his hand away from the cat and stood up to face Romana with a comical speed.

“Romana, you are--” He strangled off the joy in his voice, “Why did you leave the shelter?”

“Oh terribly sorry, while the accommodations where lovely I just couldn’t help but pop out for a walk in the garden.” Her smile matched the sarcastic lilt in her voice. “I found a clean spring not far off, and as I have not had the opportunity to bathe in a week, I was not going to waste it.”

“Fantastic,” he sneered to mask the shear and utter delight he felt at seeing her again. “I’m pleased to know that your priorities are as perfectly in line as ever.”

“I see you have the device.” She noted it on the ground next to the cat that had been keeping the bugs and rodents out of the shelter while she worked on the field disruptor. “Where is Leela?”

“The last I saw of her she was cutting her way through a score of mutants with little in the way of a plan or a hope.”

“And you left her?”

“I brought the oscillator back here.”

“Yes, Narvin you did, and that is exactly where it is going to stay until we bring back Leela.

“Romana, you can’t honestly think that--’

“What I honestly think is that their are only three people left in the universe with any hope of restoring Gallifrey, the real Gallifrey, and I am not willing to lose a single one of us.”

“Very well, madam president, what is your plain?” It took every ounce of strength he had to restrain his smile.


End file.
